Azuga GPS Fleet Tracking Review 2023: Features & Pricing

Azuga is one of the best fleet management systems on the market today and a particularly good pick for retail fleets, due to its great vehicle tracking features and stellar fuel saving tools.

Our research team scored Azuga 4.3 out of 5 points overall, taking all features, prices, and support into consideration. That makes it better than nearly all fleet management systems (FMS), although three systems still beat it: Verizon (4.7/5), Samsara (4.7/5), and Omnitracs (4.5/5).

This is because Azuga only scores 2.5/5 for pricing due to long 36-month contracts and withholding active tracking for its highest priced $35 per vehicle per month plan. Plus, Azuga only scored okay for help and support, earning 4/5 points.

The Tech.co team invested hundreds of hours of research into testing out the top 20 fleet management systems sold in the US and Canada across six research categories: price, tracking tools, driver management, vehicle management, product features, and support. The fruit of our labor? A form that will deliver custom fleet tracking quotes from our favorite providers.

In this guide:

• Azuga Driver and Vehicle Management
• Azuga Vehicle Tracking
• Azuga Pricing and Value
• Azuga Help and Support
• Azuga Installation and Other Features
• Methodology: How We Rated Azuga
• Azuga Customer Reviews
• Verdict
• FAQs

Azuga Driver and Vehicle Management

Azuga's features are its strongest quality, as they remain impressive across all three categories our researchers tested (driver management, vehicle management, and tracking).

That doesn't mean they are the absolute best, as that award goes to Verizon and its perfect 5/5 scores in all three categories, but they don't fall down in any area, and beat out the large majority of systems we've reviewed. Fleets using Azuga will be well equipped for any circumstance.

Vehicle Maintenance and Security

Azuga earned a high 4.8/5 vehicle management score, with diagnostics in the form of Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs), which can be viewed and tracked by vehicle. Two other great features? A maintenance system that tracks fleet service records, and, as a paid add-on, scheduled maintenance tools complete with alerts.

DVIR reporting is supported and engine temperature tracking— a less common fleet system perk — is included as well, though Azuga has no support for cargo temperature tracking.

Finally, theft prevention is available through alerts, which can be set up to be triggered when the system is plugged in or unplugged during a specific time span, or when the vehicle is used out of hours.

Fuel Management

Fuel is one of the biggest costs for today's fleets, but Azuga is here to help. The system offers an array of fuel-focused tools: Fuel reports, a low fuel alert, data on fuel consumption trends in trip reports, and real-time alerts on the nearest or cheapest gas stations in the vicinity. Fuel card integrations are supported.

Idling management is also granular, tracking not just idling durations, but also location, including any idling near a known landmark.

Verizon and Samsara are the only two highly-rated systems to offer better fuel tools (they both have a wider range of fuel report types such as Verizon's overfill tracking), but Azuga stands out from the rest of the pack as one of the most fuel-conscious fleet systems on the market.

Safety Features

Azuga does not offer a driver ID function to track individual drivers rather than the vehicles they use. Drivers can be identified by personal name, and reports can be created for them, but they can't be tracked through Azuga's software with tokens. Competitors like Verizon and Samsara do offer this ability, although they charge extra for its use.

A leaderboard tracks drivers' safety scores, updating their rankings in near-real time, provided you have the active tracking that's available with the CompleteFleet plan. Managers will be able to view driver safety histories and averages, and will receive alert notifications triggered by events including speeding, hard braking, hard acceleration, idling and other safety indicators. Azuga even has seat belt alerts, and it is the only top FMS to include this function.

Another FMS safety feature completely unique to Azuga: The ability to reward the highest performing drivers with gift cards to locations like Amazon, Walmart and Domino's pizza. Crash reporting is not included in Azuga's otherwise impressive safety features, an oversight that the service shares with Omnitracs but not the high-rated Verizon and Samsara. Messaging and a panic button are available through Azuga's driver mobile app.

Azuga Vehicle Tracking

Azuga scores an impressive 4.9/5 for tracking tools, matching Samsara and trailing Verizon and Omnitracs, which scored 5/5 each. You won't lack for much when to comes to helping your fleet vehicles reach their destination with Azuga.

The system lets managers schedule calls, assign team members, and verify status, duration, drive time, and miles travelled for every call. Users also get automatic route optimization and automatic notifications, two time-saving features that aren't hugely rare but aren't common for fleet systems, either. Azuga lets users pick from a big list of ways to optimize a route with multiple stops, from duration to distance or even the weight of the load being delivered.

The software integrates Google Earth mapping into its live active tracking, and includes that service's traffic and weather alerts. The refresh rate is between 30 seconds and 59 minutes, and that minimum rate puts Azuga alongside Verizon and Samsara. Motive's 1-3 second refresh rates are even faster than the competition, although we score the system 4.2/5 overall, just below Azuga's 4.3/5.

Azuga also supports another useful fleet tool, custom locations, which it calls “landmarks.” Assigningh frequently traveled locations like work sites and gas stations as landmarks make them easier to incorporate into routes. State mileage reports can be auto-generated, helping with fuel taxes.

Azuga Pricing and Value

Azuga offers three price plans. BasicFleet costs $25 per vehicle per month; SafeFleet costs $30 per vehicle per month; and CompleteFleet costs $35 per vehicle per month. These prices meet the industry standard and are comparable to two even more feature-packed services, Verizon (starts at $23.50 per vehicle per month) and Samsara (starts at $27 per vehicle per month).

The higher costs come with additional features: SafeFleet adds safety and efficency tools, while CompleteFleet adds fuel records, custom reports, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager. All plans come with 24/7 phone and email support.

Azuga comes with lifetime warranties but offers no contracts shorter than 36 months. Verizon and Samsara's contract minimum is also three years, so this isn't unusually high, but many fleet management systems come with one-year contracts, including the slightly higher-rated overall Omnitracs.

The service can be demoed for free, but will only offer free trials to fleets with 30 or more vehicles. Our research team scores Azuga 2.5/5 for pricing.

Azuga Help and Support

Azuga offers 24/7 phone and email support for its customers, along with a chatbot and an online knowledge center.

These hours are not rare for fleet management systems, even though they aren't guaranteed, either. We only rated three systems as better than Azuga overall (Verizon Connect Reveal, Samsara, and Omnitracs), and each one boasts 24/7 phone support as well. Still, quality around-the-clock support is important for any fleet that operates at odd hours, and Azuga delivers.

Our testers gave it a 4/5 help and support score, which is lower than Omnitracs (5/5) but ties with Samsara (4/5) and beats Verizon (3.5/5).

The Azuga mobile app

Azuga Installation and Other Features

Azuga earned a 3.8/5 product feature score, a middle-of-the-road score that puts it just under Samsara's 4/5 score, but well below Omnitrac's 4.8/5 or Verizon's 4.9/5. Technically, Azuga doesn't offer free installation, but this is just because the service offers plug-and-play units (not hardwired units), which can be hooked up in minutes. Azuga will provide aid in setting up the software or migrating from another service.

Azuga has one mobile app for drivers and managers, and it's available on iOS and Android with an above-average rating of 3.9 stars out of 5 on each platform. Anyone can download it, although you'll need an active subscription in order to log in.

The service integrates with three fuel card providers (WEX, PAPCO, and EFS), and the main software can log miles driven by state, a key metric for paying IFTA taxes. GPS map integrations are not available, although this is common with fleet management systems, since they offer built-in GPS tracking.

Azuga Asset Tracking

Azuga offers an additional service to track a business's powered and unpowered assets, and it integrates with the main fleet system to keep all your equipment management centralized. The hardware unit for unpowered assets uses a battery with a life of up to five years, while the powered asset tracker uses a rechargeable battery that will go up to six months between charges.

Azuga recommends its asset tracking system for logging everything from containers and trailers to cranes, bulldozers, generators, and roadside signage.

Methodology: How We Rated Azuga

Our research team built its fleet management system analysis around the three needs common to the industry, which are vehicle tracking and visibility, improved efficiency, and driver safety. We broke down each offering from the top providers into six categories:

• Price: All elements relevant to cost, including total value, warranties, and contract lengths.
• Tracking: All features relevant to routing, including custom locations, geofencing, and traffic alerts.
• Driver Management: Features include driver messaging, habit tracking, crash reporting, and more.
• Vehicle Management: Features include theft prevention, maintenance scheduling, fuel data, and more.
• Product Features: Software and hardware flexibility, including apps and integrations.
• Help & Support: Types of support, support hours, and installation aid.

Our unbiased team independently tested the top providers and services in the US and Canada, giving them a rating out of five stars in each of the above categories. Once they were done, all category scores for each brand were condensed into a single score, allowing the systems to be compared directly. Azuga earned a great 4.3/5 overall score, coming into fifth place out of 20 providers.

Azuga Customer Reviews

Azuga has built up a solid reputation over the years, and is often recommended by most businesses that use it. One way to help decide whether Azuga is the right fleet tracking software for you is by reading true customer reviews, so you can better understand what Azuga Fleet Tracking is like in practice.

FAQs